"We want volunteers. We want people to help us build this," Camille Manning-Broome said.

Two blocks of Government Street will become a temporary test
model for what a pedestrian- and bicyclist-friendly Mid City could feel like. The Center for Planning Excellence announced Tuesday at the
Smart Growth Summit that it is bringing the "Better Block" program to Baton
Rouge.

The program creates small, temporary revitalization projects, to give communities
a sense of what big changes – like taking a four-lane street like Government
down to two lanes – would feel like before committing to them.

"It's an opportunity to show how temporary street
improvements, pop-up businesses, culture and street life can improve community
connections and local commerce," said Camille Manning-Broome, director of
planning for CPEX. She was speaking at a session about the FuturEBR planning
process at this week's Smart Growth Seminar.

Mark Goodson, executive vice president of the East Baton Rouge Redevelopment Authority, and Camille Manning-Broome, director of planning at CPEX, discuss plans to bring a "Better Block" program to Baton Rouge's Government Street. (Photo by Diana Samuels)

CPEX, partnering with the city and groups like the Mid-City
Redevelopment Alliance, plans to create the project sometime in March or April.
It will be on the two blocks between Bedford Drive and Beverly Drive.

Manning-Broome said the project could include adding bike
lanes, restricting access to Government Street driveways, creating on-street
parking, adding street trees, hosting a food truck roundup and offering public
spaces for games like checkers.

The project will also show the city and drivers what it
would be like to reduce Government Street to two lanes – an idea that is
controversial as some drivers worry about its effects on traffic.

The city is putting $17,5000 toward the two-day effort,
Manning-Broome said. Since
Government Street is part of a state highway, the organizers will have to get
permits from the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development. Any
more permanent changes to the road in the future would also entail working with
the state.

Other Better Block projects in cities like Fort Worth, Texas
and Dallas have spurred cities to invest more or go out for bond money to make
aspects of the installations permanent.

Any volunteers interested in working on the project can
contact CPEX's Tara Titone at ttitone@cpex.org and Manning-Broome at camile@cpex.org.

"We want everyone on Government, everyone around that area to
own it," Manning-Broome said. "We want volunteers. We want people to help us
build this."